Philadelphia Phillies: 15 best trades in franchise history
By Tim Boyle
The Philadelphia Phillies are as old as dirt and some of the trades they have made are as good as it, too. Fortunately, not all of the trades they have made were embarrassingly bad. The Phillies have had their share of great trades as well.
Quite amazingly, most of the best Phillies trades actually took place within the last 15 years. A few older deals do stand out as top-quality. However, it was the organization’s attempt at building a dynasty post-2008 World Series which led to some of the best deals.
And even though not all of these trades led to a championship, the Phillies came away as the big winners in each of them.
15) Best Philadelphia Phillies trade: Joe Blanton from the Athletics.
Lost behind many bigger stars on the 2008 Phillies was Joe Blanton. Before the trade deadline became what it is today, teams were often moving players of Blanton’s abilities far more than they will trade a superstar player midseason.
In need of a rotation upgrade, the Phillies struck a deal with the Oakland Athletics for Blanton whose numbers in 2008 weren’t so great. At the time of the deal, he was just 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA. However, he managed to go 4-0 in his 13 starts and post a 4.05 ERA in the regular season.
Blanton went 2-0 in three playoff appearances and even added a solo shot in the World Series in his lone start. In order to get him, the cost was Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman (great name for a pitcher by the way), and lifelong minor leaguer Matthew Spencer. Only Outman played more than one season in the big leagues. His 4.43 ERA in less than 300 innings pitched makes this an obvious win for the Phillies.